ummm excuse me ready, that was a direct quote with an owner who just bought one, and he said it was sweet, i on the other hand, didnt believe him. o well
yeah glasswolf help us here, im just curious to c what u think personally, i mean i dont agree with the quality of x plod products but i wanna c what u think as far as quality
well, Sony made at least one decent head unit, back in teh early 90s, but other than that one, all of their current products are pretty poor. poorly made, and don't hold up. they may look nice though, and if someone doesn't know any better, he'd probably think it is great because its pretty and fancy and has lots of features.
dont mean to jump into your dispute... but personally i've seen sony to be a problem. i personally like Alpine head units. " Quality comes with Quantity"
The only sony Xplode headunit I really like is the one that has the CD slide-out tray. Dunno how durable and dependable it is but it has good features.
i have a sony cdxmp30 head unit, and i love it. nothing crazy in terms of quality car audio, but it looks nice in my dash, and plays music - for me, that's all that counts. as for power, i have two amps connected to it, so my speakers and subs get plenty of power.
im on my second head unit, two different cars. I have never had a problem with either of mine. They look great and the sound quality beats the crap out of stock. I dont plan on getting anything else until i need to. you may hear from some people that sony hus get really hot well my dad has an alpine and i pulled a cd out of it the other day i thought would melt if it was any hotter, my hu has never gotten near that hot and ive had it running for 6 hours or more at a time turned up up pretty loud. I understand glass has experience well mine with sony has never been a bad one. If this breaks ill end up with an eclipse or posibly an alpine if they would stop using that green lighting.
Nuther Opinion
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I'm in the warranty end of the RV business. In the past 20 years we've installed tens of thousands of head units, ranging from very cheap to the best of the high end. (We use motorized LCD screen integrated Nav systems with backup cameras etc.) Currently we use all Sony and Panasonic electronics, including amps and speakers and TV and Video. I've found that the most reliable - period, were Panasonic, and Sony is second. We had a 'defective within the first year' rate of 1 in 15 with Pioner, by the way, even worse with Clarion and Alpine. It's more like 1 in 300 with Sony and 1 in 550 with Panasonic . We use Sony in our higher end coaches because the name is respected and they offer more features. Sony didn't get to be the biggest, and stay there for decades, by building crap like some of these guys claim.
So believe what you want. One thing I can tell you though, the $149 units are not built as well as more expensive units, in any brand. Read into that what you like, but I buy better models and have no trouble, and I have Sony in all my vehicles except one, and have for years, and the only one I ever had a problem with was a cheap ($119) Xplod model. Lasted 6 months and I just shrugged and replaced it with $250 (also Xplod) model that has now lasted 2 years without a glitch.
One more thing - most of the problems with basic units I've been reading about on these boards stem from using the factory wiring. 22 gauge speaker and power wires just don't cut it with a high power head unit. Run your own power from the battery and run some decent speaker wires (you don't need Monster Cable - just something bigger than car wiring) and most of these problems go away.
Nuther Opinion
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I'm in the warranty end of the RV business. In the past 20 years we've installed tens of thousands of head units, ranging from very cheap to the best of the high end. (We use motorized LCD screen integrated Nav systems with backup cameras etc.) Currently we use all Sony and Panasonic electronics, including amps and speakers and TV and Video. I've found that the most reliable - period, were Panasonic, and Sony is second. We had a 'defective within the first year' rate of 1 in 15 with Pioner, by the way, even worse with Clarion and Alpine. It's more like 1 in 300 with Sony and 1 in 550 with Panasonic . We use Sony in our higher end coaches because the name is respected and they offer more features. Sony didn't get to be the biggest, and stay there for decades, by building crap like some of these guys claim.
So believe what you want. One thing I can tell you though, the $149 units are not built as well as more expensive units, in any brand. Read into that what you like, but I buy better models and have no trouble, and I have Sony in all my vehicles except one, and have for years, and the only one I ever had a problem with was a cheap ($119) Xplod model. Lasted 6 months and I just shrugged and replaced it with $250 (also Xplod) model that has now lasted 2 years without a glitch.
One more thing - most of the problems with basic units I've been reading about on these boards stem from using the factory wiring. 22 gauge speaker and power wires just don't cut it with a high power head unit. Run your own power from the battery and run some decent speaker wires (you don't need Monster Cable - just something bigger than car wiring) and most of these problems go away.
I think it all depends what you're after...we have a saying in the live event industry: "flash & trash". It means going for the quick "WOW" over actual production quality.
I decided to treat myself to a decent system in my new car, and as I'm an audio mixer by trade I'm reaalllly picky. I literally spent hours listening to head units, amps, speakers, subs...my poor sales guy earned his commission on me.
I ended up with an entirely Eclipse system. I'm also at a point in my life when I had the $$$ to spend on Eclipse. When I was in HS or college there's no way I could have afforded that kind of equipment, so I'd probably have been a Sony user back then due to price.
If you don't have unreasonable expectations, you shouldn't have unpleasant surprises. There's a reason that some HUs are $149 and others are $649. Just know which one you have, and everyone will be happy. :-)
More like most of these guys claim, in the real world, Sony mobile products have over a 50% failure rate in under a year. "We use Sony in our higher end coaches because the name is respected and they offer more features" Exactly. They're riding off of a reputation and have been for years. They also make everything "pretty" expecting to catch an eye every now and then. I don't know what Alpine, Pioneer, and Clarion units you used, but Sony and Panasonic are far from the most reliable units out there, that's including their high end stuff as well.
Enjin
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I bought a Sony CDX-F5700 from circuit city for $199.99. It's the fancy xplode one with the button to change the color and plays MP3s(supposedly). I returned it within a week of buying it. It was the most poory constructed piece of junk I have come accross.
When playing original CDs, or even Audio CDRs it was ok, but on brand new CDRs and CDRWs with mp3s, it constantly skipped. The CDs were right out of the burner, no scratches, no corrupt files, and skipped almost every 30 seconds of playing.
all the fancy features: I flip the stereo to "Xplode" mode and was lucky to be able to turn my speakers down before they do what the name implies. I think they over did it a little...
when i went to return the stereo, I saw that the price had dropped to 189.99....maybe a good reason?
before the explode, I owned a Blaupunkt BPV655 for around 150 installed. although it didnt play MP3s, it can blow the xplode away any day, and is a much better value next to comparable sony head units.
dezzzy
Unregistered guest
Posted on
I heard they redid their "internal" mechanics for the 2004 year models. How are the new models doing?
I'm currently using a sony xplod MP3 fm/am CD player CDX-MP450X and it's str8 if you ask me. But I'm also thinking about changing to clarion sinse I've been using this one for almost two years and it's time for a better upgrade.
i bought a top of the line sony 1 year ago, and i thought it was great, i put an apline in a few months ago and the difference is ridiculous, the sony sucked compared apline, and it was cheaper! i've heard sonys and aplines in the same cars and theres no comparison. the reason the call them "explode" is cause the actually explode like mine did, lol
From what Nuther Opinion said, I think there is only one possible explanation. Since he said he works at the warranty section, he only deals with when people come in and try to claim warranty. That must mean that since Sony HU's suck so much, people who actually bother to do some research online realize that when their units break and decide to completely replace it instead of going through the hassle of claiming warranty. Its those few people who know nothing about car audio that actually come in and claim and those are the only ones he ever sees.*
*Only reasonable explanation I can think of as to why he THINKS only 1 in 500 go bad. =)